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Monday, October 05, 2009

In its opening weekend, CSO doubles the soloists, audience's fun

John von RheinClassical music critic, Chicago TribuneOctober 5, 2009

Curious are the ways of Chicago Symphony Orchestra programming, sometimes. Instead of one season opener last weekend, the CSO presented two, although only one was designated as the gala opening night concert. Are you with me so far?

Soprano Renee Fleming was the glamorous headliner for the gala on Saturday, while violinist Vadim Gluzman discharged solo duties on the first subscription concert of the season on Friday.

Both events were packed, and a festive atmosphere prevailed at Orchestra Hall. Clearly energized following its recent European tour, the orchestra gave its near-best to its capable and efficient guest conductor, Paavo Jarvi.

Fleming has been making the rounds of major U.S. symphony openings; she launched the New York Philharmonic's season a few weeks ago. Her sole Chicago appearance of the season held Samuel Barber's "Knoxville, Summer of 1915" and six of Strauss' orchestral songs, two of them encores.

America's favorite soprano looked terrific in an asymmetrical taupe gown with flounces. That said, Barber's evocative setting of the nostalgic James Agee prose poem found her apparently on autopilot, floating the ravishing lyricism with nowhere near the sensitivity that made her performance at Ravinia 11 years ago so moving. Jarvi didn't help by sometimes allowing the CSO to drown out the diva.

The Strauss songs were another matter. Fleming's radiant tonal float and seamless column of gorgeous sound were an ideal complement to the lushness of the orchestrations, which no orchestra this side of Vienna plays better than the CSO.

These songs could have been composed with Fleming in mind. It will be difficult to forget the seemingly artless rapture of her "Freundliche Vision," "Verfuhrung" and "Caecilie;" the soaring intensity of "Zueignung;" the candle-lit warmth of "Winterweihe;" the rosy glow of "Morgen."

Jarvi got the Saturday concert under way with Divertimento for Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein's charming and affectionate 1980 centennial homage to the Boston Symphony. The breezy exuberance of the suite's eight tiny vignettes -- bearing such titles as "Samba," "Blues" and "Turkey Trot" -- fit right in with the spirit of the occasion.

Friday's program opened with an eloquent reading of "Nimrod" from Elgar's "Enigma Variations," played in memory of Philip Blum, for 54 years a beloved fixture of the CSO cello section, who died Aug. 31.

Then it was on to a prime example of Bernstein's concert music, his 1954 Serenade for Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion. Loosely inspired by Plato's "Symposium," this violin concerto in every respect but name has the soloist pouring out floods of bittersweet melody one moment, chugging through a breathless perpetual motion the next, finally trading wicked jazz riffs with the ensemble.

The superb Israeli violinist Gluzman, a faculty member of Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts, scored a big success in his CSO debut. He wove the work's many moods -- playful, jazzy, skittish, dramatic -- into a seamless statement buoyed by spirited interplay with the orchestra. What's more, his powerful bow arm drew a wealth of silken yet intense sound from his instrument, the 1690 "ex- Leopold Auer" Stradivarius, on loan from the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

Rounding out the concerts were vitamin-rich readings of two iconic CSO signature showpieces, Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks" and Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, both marked by distinguished solo work from various principal players. Jarvi applied degrees of orchestral color and tonal weight with a knowing hand, to the Bartok work in particular.

There was more Bernstein at encore time both nights. Fleming delighted Saturday's dressy throng with a charming rendition of "I Feel Pretty" from "West Side Story." Jarvi and the orchestra sprinted through the "Candide" Overture on Friday as if they were training for the Chicago Marathon.